I’ve returned from backpacking in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Instead of describing how beautiful it was, I’ll simply show you.

Needless to say, it was a great trip.

The fact that it was punctuated by getting into Santa Cruz in time to see the Lakers come back from a 20 point deficit and win at the buzzer made it even better. Which, by the way, reminds me of something Tony said about “fair-weather fans”. It is trendy to be a Laker fan right now, and people don’t quite believe me after I give the ubiquitous explanation that I have always been a fan, from all the way back in the 80’s. They usually change their minds, though, when I persist in my explanation, telling them how I went to Pat Riley’s basketball camp as a young baller, naming off the starting lineup (including the number one 6th man) from the 85 championship Lakers (that being Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Byron Scott, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis, and Michael Cooper), and talking about the games I’d see in the Forum (back when it was just The Forum, and not the Great Western Forum, or it’s replacement, The Staples Center which, although absolutely spectacular inside, doesn’t even pretend to have a name other than a commerical).

For those and many other reasons, I speak from experience when I say that it would be amazing to the Celtics and Lakers, head to head, in the Finals again.

So what’s the point? Nothing really, except that I cheered loudly when I saw this.